What does it look like when a classroom in Yerevan becomes a launchpad for Armenia's next generation of AI builders? At Mkhitar Sebastatsi Educational Complex, it looks like students who arrived not knowing Python leaving with portfolios of real-world projects — and the confidence to keep going.
Since its launch in 2022, AGBU AVC's STEP.ai program has grown steadily in both scale and ambition. At Mkhitar Sebastatsi alone, enrollment has nearly doubled, and a 64% return rate tells a story the numbers alone can't fully capture: students are choosing to come back. In a world full of competing demands on a young person's time, that kind of commitment is truly significant.
The academic results reinforce what the retention rate already suggests. During the previous academic year, 80% of students earned the highest grades (9–10), while the remaining 20% also demonstrated strong performance (7–8). But perhaps more telling than the grades are the projects behind them — student teams independently analyzed datasets on everything from insurance costs to diabetes detection, presenting their findings using tools they had learned from scratch.
The students themselves put it best.
"This course was a crucial stage in my professional development. It not only helped me understand the logic of programming but also taught me how to work efficiently and systematically with real data, including machine learning. The theoretical knowledge was always accompanied by practical tasks, where we independently created small programs, data analyses, and charts — and that built my confidence in applying it to real-world projects."
— Ani Balayan
"The course gave me the opportunity to deepen my understanding of programming, starting from the basics all the way to data analysis. This project helped me practically understand how to clean, organize, analyze, and present data visually. For me, it was also an important experience in working independently, thinking critically, and developing technical skills."
— Yerazik Hovhannisyan
For some, the impact extended beyond their own learning. Narek Sahakyan, who will go on to teach Python to 7th and 8th graders, reflects on how the program reshaped not just what he knows, but what he can now give to others:
"During the course — with both online and offline sessions — we covered topics that make a programmer's toolkit more powerful. The knowledge I gained allowed me to understand concepts more deeply and pass them on to younger students."
— Narek Sahakyan
And then there are the moments that make a course click — the realization that learning isn't just about absorbing information, but about seeing the world differently:
"What impressed me most was the idea that we can first model data and then use it to predict real-life problems. Through my final project, I not only reinforced my theoretical knowledge but gained practical experience working with real data."
— Nvard Ghahramanyan
For a closer look at what students — and their on-site teacher — experienced throughout the program, watch this video.
STEP.ai is a joint initiative by AGBU Armenian Virtual College (AVC), AGBU Silicon Valley, Synopsys Foundation, Synopsys Armenia (Educational Department), and the Union of Information and Communication Technology Employers (UEICT) of Armenia.
Learn more about the program here.
